Reality Check
by babeeexface
Summary: Danielle lands herself in New York at an inopportune time. While making friends, and inevitably falling for Jace,she has to adjust to her new reality. Can she ditch her old ways and make it here? JaceXOC
1. Chapter 1

I do not own TMI series, or any of it's characters

I do not support drug use or underage drinking!

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"_I shoot the lights out, Hide 'til its bright out, Whoa, just another lonely night, Are you willing to sacrifice your life?"_ I sang along with my iPod as I did my hair. With my headphones in and my blow dryer on, I didn't notice anyone come in until I was jumped on.

"Ahh!" I cried, but when I opened my eyes I knew who it was. "Don't scare me like that, Stoner!" I said giggling, as I was pulled into a big hug.

"Come on Danielle, hurry up. We need to get going, you're mom's gonna be home soon." And he had a point. _He _was my best friend, and hisname was Darrin, but more commonly known by his nickname, Stoner, which he'd earned by being a huge stoner.

Stoner released me from his vice-like hug and stared at me. I had a maroon tank and some Aerie panties on. "I think you should just go as you are." I threw a brush at him. He was a total flirt, and I always teased him for looking like Munro Chambers, but hotter.

"Get outta here! Let me finish my hair and get some pants on, then we can go." He backed out of the bathroom and left me to do my hair. I had brown hair that hung down to my mid-back, with side swept bangs parted on the left. I straightened my bangs and left the rest of my hair natural, meaning very Taylor Swift-y. I threw on some mascara and eyeliner and stepped out into my bedroom.

"Very nice, but you still don't have any pants on." Stoner said from my computer chair as he spun around.

"I know that." I said as I grabbed a pair of ripped denim shorts and a tan cardigan and pulled them on. I stepped into my nude Chanel flats and grabbed my phone and tote bag, signalling that I was ready to go. Stoner and I ditched my house and headed to the park, fortunate enough not to run into my mom on the way. She frowned upon such extra-curricular activities.

We met some friends at the usual meeting place, behind a bunch of trees at an old park no one ever went to. We sat together, passing around joint, popping pills, and drinking beer, talking about nothing for hours. It had started to get dark and Stoner gave me a kiss goodbye before heading off with Kaelie, the slut, probably to do more than just make out.

"So I see you and Stoner still aren't dating." Elle said, lighting up a cigarette.

"Nope," I said, grabbing the cigarette from her hand and taking a drag, "and we aren't going to." I finished, blowing smoke into her face. She fanned the smoke away and laughed, taking back her cig.

Stoner and I had a special relationship. We'd kiss, sometimes make out, but we weren't interested in dating each other. We'd cleared that up a long time ago.

It was almost midnight when I decided to head home. Stoner hadn't come back, so they must have gone to his place, which meant I had to walk home alone while he was hooking up. I walked slowly, dreading what I would be met with when I returned.

I was heading down my street when I saw dazzling lights down an alleyway. I'd seen fireflies when I'd been stoned, and it's really trippy, but these weren't fireflies, they were blue. I walked, or stumbled, towards them, my right arm outstretched. I was surrounded by them, but when I tried to catch one it went right through my hand.

They flew towards the end of the alley and through a brick wall. I approached where they'd gone through and the bricks began to swirl together, making a vortex. I tried to back up but a strong force pulled me towards the vortex, and I was sucked in. It was like being tossed around in a dryer, making me feel nauseas, and my right hand was burning. I held it close to my chest, closed my eyes, and held my breath.

I was spat out into an apartment, knocking my breath out of my lungs. I gulped for air, inhaling the scent of smoke and incense. Grabbing a nearby chair, I steadied myself up to my feet and eased my way to the doorway filled with a bead curtain. When I pushed the beads away I noticed a strange mark on the back of my right hand where it had been burning. My vision was blurred and I couldn't make the picture out, but it hadn't been there before.

I started to freak out, but I told myself I was just having a bad trip. I'd woken up in strange places before, but this was new. A loud crash came from above, causing the building to shake. I clung to the doorframe and pulled my phone from my bag. It was no use, I couldn't see straight enough to dial a number. I slid down the frame and let my head fall back, closing my eyes.

For 10 minutes the crashing above me continued as I sat there, try to clear my head of the drunken/stoned-ness that plagued me. A door across the hall opened and a girl came in, it must have been the building's front door. She was short, with curly red hair. Her eyes widened when she saw me.

"Hey, are you ok?" she called, running over to me. "My name is Clary Fray, I'm going to help you."

"Where am I?" I slurred together. My head rolled and I blinked slowly, trying to focus on her face. Another loud crash sounded.

"I need you to stay here, ok? I'll be back." She said, running up the main stairs. I knew she shouldn't go up there, but I was alone and I couldn't go after her. Another crash shook the building, followed by a high-pitched scream. I hoisted myself off the ground and crawled upstairs. Right now, Clary was my only chance to figure out what was going on.

The door to the upstairs apartment was open. The room was trashed, across it, Clary lay on the floor with some gnarly creature on top of her. I fell to the side, knocking over a table and both heads turned to me. I must have looked so pathetic, on my hands and knees.

"Another girl to eat, oh to eat." The creature said, drool dripping from its mouth and onto Clary, who screamed. The monster looked down at her and swung it's wrecking ball of a tail around. It arched back, getting ready to strike, when she shoved a black remote into its mouth. The creature jumped back, twitching hysterically before dying, black liquid pouring from its mouth.

I hauled myself over to Clary, she was in a state of shock. The creature's body had disappeared, but the liquid pooled around us, our clothes absorbing it. A high pitched whistle sounded through the air and I flinched, raising my hands to cover my ears. Clary lay motionlessly on the floor and I hesitantly lowered my hands before something slammed into the back of my head.

I was out.


	2. Chapter 2

Next semester starts tomorrow and I wanted to get another chapter up before my holiday ended.

I don't own TMI :'(

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I woke up in damp grass, the loud sirens of police cars wailing in the background. Clary was beside me, cruiser lights flashing in the distance. I lifted my head to look at myself, blood and black smeared over my clothes and skin.

"Careful now." came a voice. A boy was leaning over Clary, wrapping bandages around her. He smiled at me and went back to work. I laid back, the grass feeling nice and cool on my body. I heard the boy speak to Clary, which meant she was awake. I tried to listen, but my head throbbed.

"Ravener...neck...demon poison...Institute. Hold still." Was all I heard.

The boy came over to me, taking my hand and pulling out a rod. He pressed it to my skin, drawing a small circular pattern, while explaining that it would prevent us from being seen. It burned a little, but I just stared at him. He was hot, and would have given Stoner a run for his money.

"I can walk." I choked out while managing to stand up. He helped Clary to her feet and looked at me. I took a step forward to prove my point, and stumbled. He smirked at me, giving a small laugh. I wasn't in pain, but I was still being affected by the drugs and alcohol. He probably knew too, if he'd seen my eyes or even smelled me. I reeked of blood, smoke, and alcohol.

"Jace, this is..." Clary started, but realized she didn't know my name.

"Danielle." I said, looking around for my bag.

"Jace" said the boy, handing me my bag. "Is this what you're looking for?"

I took it, extending my hand. He shook it, but stopped when he saw the mark on my hand. Clary hadn't noticed it.

"We should head back." He said as he slipped from my grasp. Wrapping his arm around Clary's waist he turned to me, "Are you sure you can go it alone?" he teased, but he seemed wary. I nodded, stumbling along behind them.

I sat in a bed in the infirmary of what I had been told was called the Institute. Clary was unconscious in the bed beside mine. She'd been there for three days, I was worried. Every time I went to sleep I'd prayed I'd waked up in the ICU of the hospital from a drug overdose, but I kept waking up here. For now I had to believe that this was all real.

"Mundies die awfully easily, don't they?" said Isabelle. I'd met her when we arrived that night. She was stunning, and pretty smart. She had long dark hair, and porcelain skin. She wore jeans and a tight blue tank top with a red pendant, that I'd never seen her without, hanging from her neck.

"Isabelle, you know it's bad luck to talk about death in a sickroom." said Alec, Isabelle's older brother. He was tall, and all together very similar to Isabelle, same dark hair, same skin, but not as nice. They both acted like Jace had around me, friendly yet cautious.

Jace wasn't there, I'd seen him a few times, but we hadn't talked, and when he did see me he was staring at my hand. I mostly stayed in the infirmary with Clary or hung out with Isabelle in her room. I'd been borrowing Isabelle's clothes, fortunately we were both D cups, all I had to do was roll up her pants to fit my 5'3" frame. I could only imagine what Clary would look like in them.

"Sometimes I wonder if he-Look! She moved!" said Isabelle. I immediately set down the tisane I'd been drinking from Hodge, their tutor, and spun to look at Clary. She slowly sat up and blinked her eyes open.

"I guess she's alive after all. I'll go tell Hodge." Alec sighed, leaving the room.

"So, you're finally awake, Hodge will be pleased. We all thought you'd probably die in your sleep." said Isabelle, handing Clary a tisane.

"Is this the Institute?" Clary asked.

Isabelle rolled her eyes. "Is there anything Jace didn't tell you?"

Jace hadn't told _me _much, but Isabelle had. Apparently the creature from the apartment was a demon, it was _Clary's _apartment, and Clary's mom is missing. She also explained, reluctantly, that they were Shadowhunters, which meant they hunted demons. I had a hard time believing all this, I still don't.

"Tell me, is he always really rude, or does he save that for mundanes?" Clary asked. Mundanes, or mundies, were how Shoadowhunters referred to normal people.

"Oh, he's rude to everyone," said Isabelle airily. "It's what makes him so damn sexy. That, and he's killed more demons than anyone else his age. "

"But he's your brother! Doesn't he live here with you?" Clary exclaimed. I picked my drink back up and sipped it to hide my laugh. Isabelle and I had already had this conversation.

"Yeah, but, he's not my brother. Jace's parents are dead." I choked on the tisane at that, "his mother died when he was born. His father was murdered when he was ten."

"Was it demons?" Clary pressed.

Isabelle got to her feet. "Look, I'm gonna go. You and Danielle have some talking to do. Oh, and there's soap in the bathroom," she added. "You might want to clean up a little. You smell."

Clary glared at her. "Thanks a lot." She said as Isabelle left.

"You should shower, we can talk after. You look sore." I said smiling. Clary nodded and headed into the bathroom and I slipped out of Isabelle's pyjamas and into some clothes. A pair of ripped skinny jeans and a low cut flowery chiffon baby doll top that was white with pink flowers. I'd already done my hair and makeup so I just stared at myself in the mirror. I'd come out of everything relatively damage-less.

Clary came out of the bathroom just as I was pushing up my boobs.

"What are you doing?" she asked, awkwardly.

"Making sure the girls look great. You never do that?" I asked. She blushed and turned away. I realized she didn't have much to push up, oops. "Forget it, Isabelle left clothes for you over there." I smiled as she walked over to the pile. She was shorter than I thought; I noticed when she began rolling up Isabelle's jeans. She couldn't have been more than 5'1", probably less. The red sweater she put on emphasized her lack of a chest and I silently thanked god for my D's.

After she was dressed we talked, and she let me play with her hair. I love playing with people's hair. She told me everything she knew about Shadowhunters and what had happened, starting with some club named Pandemonium.

"I need to call Luke, he's good friends with my mom. He might know where she is. They must have a phone here." Clary said as she put on her Skechers. I slipped on my Chanel flats, ready to go.

We walked out into the hall in search of a phone. I looked around for Church, but didn't see him. That cat was crazy, always knew where people were, but was never around when you needed him. I heard a piano playing in the distance.

"Come on, I know where the piano room is." I said, pulling Clary along.

"Do you know your way around here?" she asked, walking behind me.

"Not exactly... but I know where the piano is. I was messing around with it with Isabelle yesterday." It had been pretty fun too. I liked Isabelle, she'd been the nicest to me so far.

When we got to the room we saw Jace playing the piano. He was good, no denying it, and that bugged me. He seemed like the kind of guy who was good at everything. I knocked on the door and he turned to look at us.

"Play me a song, Piano Man." I joked. Jace laughed and walked over to us.

"I should take you to see Hodge, come." He led us down hallways full of identical looking empty bedrooms.

"Why are there so many rooms, I thought it was a research facility?" Clary asked.

"This is the residential wing. We're pledged to offer safety and lodging to any Shadowhunter who requests it. We can house up to two hundred people here. "Jace said.

"But most of these rooms are empty."

"People come and go. Nobody stays for long. Usually it's just us-Alec, Isabelle, Max, their parents-and me and Hodge. "

"Max?"

"You met the beauteous Isabelle? Alec is her older brother. Max is the youngest, but he's overseas with his parents. Think of them as foreign diplomats and of this as an embassy, of sorts. They're in the Shadowhunter home country, working out peace negotiations. They brought Max with them because he's so young. "

"What's Shadowhunter home country? Man, I need to see you guys in action, fighting demons and stuff. Everything you're saying sounds like it's straight out of a fairytale. For all I know this is an asylum and you guys are crazy" I said.

"Hopefully _you_ won't end up in a position where you're fighting 'demons and stuff' with us. As for homecountry, That's Idris. You wouldn't have heard of it. There are wardings- protective spells-up all over the borders. If you tried to cross into Idris, you'd be transported from one border to the next. It isn't on any mundie maps. For our purposes you can consider it a small country between Germany and France." Jace said, an air of superiority about him.

"Have you been there?" Clary asked.

"I grew up there." Jace continued. "There are Shadowhunters all over the world, but Idris will always be our home."

We reached an arch-shaped set of wooden doors. Church lay curled in front of them. He raised his head as we approached and yowled. "Hey, Church, " Jace said, stroking the cat's back with a bare foot before entering the massive library.

Books lined every shelf, stacked all the way to the ceiling. It was amazing, i'd never been in there since arriving. Hodge stood near a desk at the center of the room, his raven, Hugo, perched on his shoulder. I'd met him a few times, usually so he could ask questions and observe my hand, taking notes the entire time. I'd given him every answer I had, and he hadn't given me any.

"Good day to you, Danielle. And welcome, Clary, to the Institute." Hodge smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

"Clary Fray" she shook his hand.

"I am Hodge, and this," he motioned to the raven on his shoulder "is Hugo. It is an honour to meet anyone who killed a Ravener with her bare hands."

"Well, it wasn't with my bare hands, it was with Jace's, uhm-"

"My sensor she shoved it down the thing's throat. The runes must have choked it." Jace cut in. "I'll need a new one, by the way."

"There are several extra in the weapons room." Hodge turned to look at Clary, smiling. When he did all the lines in his face showed, and with the thick scar down the right side of his face he looked quite old. "What gave you the idea of using the sensor as a weapon?"

A laugh sounded through the library. It was Alec, he sat in a big red armchair by the fireplace. "You actually buy this story Hodge? I don't." His dark blue eyes stared Clary down with resentment.

I frowned at him. Sure Alec wasn't sociable, but I didn't think he was mean, until now.

"You're suggesting Clary didn't kill the demon, Alec?" Hodge said. Clary looked like she was hiding that she was hurt. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and hugged her.

"Of course she didn't. She's a mundie, and a little kid. There's no way she took on a Ravener."

"I'm not a little kid! I'll be sixteen on Sunday!" Clary asserted.

"The same age as Isabelle, would you call her a child?" Hodge tested.

"Isabelle hails from one of the greatest Shadowhunter dynasties in history, this girl hails from New Jersey." Alec said, dryly.

"I'm from Brooklyn!" Clary yelled. "I killed a demon in my own house and you're being a dickhead because I'm not a spoiled little rich brat like you and your sister?"

I bit down on my cheeks to stop myself from laughing. I looked at Jace, who seemed to have no problem laughing outright at Alec.

"Shut up. She shouldn't even be here. Mundies aren't allowed in the Institute, and for good reasons." Alec said, sounding almost defeated.

"The Law allows us to offer sanctuary under certain circumstances, and if Clary's mother was attacked she could have been next." Hodge said.

"Someone must have sent the demon after her. There must be a reason, a Ravener doesn't just show up and attack people. If she were innocent-"

"What do you mean 'innocent'?" Clary cut Alec off.

"He means it would have taken a witch or warlock to summon the demon and send it after your mother." Hodge Clarified.

"My mother doesn't believe in magic." Clary said, but I could tell she didn't sound totally sure.

"So we're back where we started? Fantastic, I love wasting my time." I sighed, dropping into a chair by Alec. They were really comfy, I sunk into it, closing my eyes. My head had started to throb.

"We'll have to notify the Clave." Hodge reached up and pet Hugo.

"No!" Jace said. "We can't-"

"Clary is the first mundane to enter the Institute in over 100 years, you know the rules about mundane knowledge of Shadowhunters. The Clave must be informed."

I knew what was coming. I rested my head in my hands. I listened as they talked about Clary and how Jace had marked her, how her mother or father must have been a Shadowhunter, how she couldn't possibly be a mundane. I didn't even try to understand, because while they're all fretting about Clary I still don't know what was going on with me or how I was going to get home.

Alec touched my shoulder. "Are you ok?"

"What's going on?" I whispered. For a second I felt the sting of tears, but years of practice allowed me to quickly force them back. I heard Clary on the phone.

"Listen, they care about you too. But you have the mark on your hand, Clary doesn't. The worst thing that could happen is she gets kicked out and you stay with us. Once we figure out what's happened to you, you might be a valuable asset, whereas she's an inconvenience." Alec whispered.

I smiled, even though I shouldn't have. In the back of my head I knew Alec was slightly biased, he didn't like Clary and it was obvious, but I wanted to feel important, and until Clary had woken up it was all about me. But now that she was here it was like I didn't matter. I take what I can get.

"Why does everyone act weird around me?" I asked.

"Shadowhunters train their entire life, it's kind of sketchy that you have no memory of having your mark, nonetheless training. I know Hodge must have some theories in his head by now, but so far he's refrained from sharing them."

"I'd like to have a conversation with Clary, alone." Hodge announced. Alec and I jumped away from each other, we'd been leaning in closely and it probably looked suspicious.

Alec stood up. "Fine, we'll leave you to it."

I followed him towards the door, but looked back when I realized Jace wasn't coming. "Coming?"

He looked back at Hodge and Clary for a moment and huffed before following after me.

Out in the hall, Alec had already disappeared.

"What were you guys about?" Jace asked nonchalantly.

"Hm? Oh nothing. Why, did you feel left out?" I winked, but inside I still hurt. It must have showed.

"It's not like we don't care. In fact, they all like you-"

"And you don't?"

"I didn't say that. It's just..." he took a moment to choose the right words. "I don't _understand _you, or your situation. I don't see how something like... like _you_ can happen. I don't even know what to call it."

"Then don't. Everything I've heard these past few days seems insane. So instead of try to label it or understand it, I just accept it for what it is. Right now, there's nothing else I can do."

"Don't worry too much, a beautiful face like yours doesn't need premature wrinkles. Now, I think it's time you see the weapons room, it's really quite impressive." Jace said, taking my hand and leading me. I smiled at the back of his head before I was pulled forward.

He said I had a beautiful face.

Sorry if this chapter was boring. When I read the book, this was the chapter that nearly made me give it back to my friend and quit reading it. Thank God I didn't!

_Xoxo Miss Baby Face_


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